A growing trend amongst consumers is to avoid market researchers telephone questionnairres at all costs. It is as if most individuals interpert a market researcher as a telemarketer. The American Advertising Federation has developed guidelines for ethical market research tactics that include never attempting to smuggle in a sales pitch attached to a market research call or inquiry. The problem of marketing research has grown so immensely that a roundtable discussion was held at the Research Industry Summit on September 28th.

The most important issues at hand for the meeting included low response rates amongst market research surveys (under 10%), surveying the same individuals time and time again, the issue of cost, and varying results. During their meeting, the global heads of market research companies and top research executives found that the majority of nonrespondents to market surveys tended to be black, male, hispanic, and young. The majority of younger people (under 25) rely on cell phones only making it impossible to reach them by phone. Of the most obvious solutions developed, the marketing research team decided to follow in the footsteps of Nielsen Media Research which has actually been able to raise respondent rates over the past five years. Nielsen Media Research actually pays respondents for their time over a two year commitment period. Some participants of the meeting also suggested making surveys shorter and less cumbersome.